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Tanebrae - Conclusion
Hi all,we appear to have hit some issues preventing the continuation of the campaign.Bear in mind as you read on that I hold nothing against any of you, and applaud you for participating and for what we made together. I do appreciate that the time you put into it, the thoughts, the conversations, the backstabbery, but in the end, I realize that I had greater ambitions for the project than I could reasonably deliver on.First off, it has become increasingly clear to me that the format/system is flawed. I would argue that it does not keep engagement at a high enough level, and that I have failed to implement a system that succeeds at this. For future games of this sort, I'd rewrite the system to be purely interaction-between-player based and require as little GMing as possible. I have a variety of reasons for this conclusion, which I will lay bare to prove my point:(1) I have to remind people to send in Actions every week, which is something I do simply not have time or will to do. Alternatively I receive too few, and it makes the world seem silent. I sit in the unique position that I see every hidden Action, but what about you guys? Do you have any idea of what any of the others are doing? I would guess not, which is a problem. Intrigues cannot be played upon if they remain secret, and this system keeps them hidden.(2) Sending in Actions become a chore for players. You have other things to do, lives, roleplay, more important stuff, and it was meant to be that way. But the time it takes to engage yourself in the current state of the world and your old plans is complicated enough to require brainpower, something one 'does not simply do on a Sunday evening'. And I have also caught myself thinking 'oh gods, I have to look at Tanebrae tonight' just after midnight Sunday, which is not something I enjoy. Furthermore, the system requires me to explain rules for Actions too often, and getting an Action Sunday evening from everyone, clearing "what exactly do you want to do?!" and writing it in three places is not my idea of a good time.(3) Time. The world moves too fast for 'letter-speed' conversations. Some of you have noticed that over the longer conversations, things would happen in world that technically hasn't happened when your conversation is happening. That is unfortunate, and a step in the right direction might be to push for only one Action a month or every second week. But how would one find the balance between interacting with the game to a satisfying degree, and yet not being swarmed? My suggestion would be to take the roleplay at actual real life play sessions, but I don't have the time for organizing that while writing my thesis.(4) Communication. We never had proper communication established between people. There are still unanswered messages on Discord from weeks ago, BUT I don't hold that against the individual player. Again, we have a game that says "do as much as you want", and yet tries to rely on the schedule of others? We've created a paradox that leaves half starved for interaction and half stressed out with messages.So yea, I don't have any more points right now.It should be said as a final word that I'm only moderately saddened by the ending of Tanebrae. I'm sad that I couldn't deliver something that would last longer and be more fun for you guys, and yet happy to kill a faulty system.The best,Your GM,Anders / Noctavigant